Call to speed up EV feebates

Some car buyers are deciding to delay buying electric vehicles (EVs) until ‘‘feebates’’ kick in in 2021, according to a car dealer who is calling for the Government to speed up the incentive scheme for low-emission vehicles.

Andre Hopman, who is the principal of Christchurch’s Hopmans QEII Cars, said some people had delayed buying EVs for two or three months in the run-up to last month’s announcement of the long-awaited incentive scheme by Associate Transport Minister Julie Anne Genter.

When they found out it would not kick in until the start of 2021, some lost patience and decided to buy now, but others had decided to continue waiting for the incentives, he said.

‘‘Two years is too long,’’ Hopman said. ‘‘I think the Government has to move quicker. It is a wee bit disappointing.’’

Genter said she wouldn’t be surprised if there was a small drop in electric car sales prior to discounts coming in.

‘‘The good news for car dealers is once the discounts kick in they’ll see a big jump in demand for the product they’re selling.

‘‘If dealers would like to see an earlier start date I would strongly encourage them to make that clear in their submissions to the Ministry of Transport.’’

Genter unveiled the feebate scheme last month, saying it would help families to afford fuelefficient vehicles that were ‘‘better for the climate and their back pocket’’.

New high-emission cars such as petrol Range Rovers and Toyota Land Cruisers would face a maximum $3000 import fee, which would pay for a rebate of up to $8000 on new EVs, with the maximum fees and rebates on secondhand cars fixed at $1500 and $2600 respectively.

Smaller petrol cars could expect a rebate for several years, with models such as new Ford Fiestas potentially attracting an initial $1100 rebate.

But over time, more vehicles with middling emissions would gradually attract fees, and the rebates for low-emission vehicles would decline, to keep the fees and rebates in balance as purchasing patterns changed.

At the same time, a new ‘‘clean car standard’’ would force dealers to gradually reduce the average emissions of cars they imported, to 105 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometre by 2025.

Motor Trade Association (MTA) strategy manager Gregg Epps said it supported feebates, but wanted a ‘‘just transition’’ and believed the Government might be trying to go ‘‘too far, too fast’’ with the 105g carbon target.

‘‘We may see brands exit, because some brands such as Isuzu deal mainly in large cars . . . So this is the Government forcing a new business model on Isuzu.’’

The MTA questioned some of the assumptions officials had made to model the future balance of imports, Epps said.

‘‘There is an assumption about a 30 per cent increase in EV imports and we don’t know where those are coming from.’’

The MTA also believed the feebates and the clean car standard could be undermined by a loophole for importers, he said. It foresaw entrepreneurs setting up online platforms to help private buyers import higher-emissions vehicles direct from overseas to avoid import fees, also undermining consumer protections.

‘‘We expect we will see a whole bunch of businesspeople offering to broker imports for people.’’

Genter was confident the Government would find solutions to that sort of regulatory challenge, saying: ‘‘We’re consulting with the vehicle industry right now to ensure we design a scheme that’s robust and fair and avoids situations like this arising.’’

Submissions on the feebate scheme and clean car standard close on August 20.